The Effect of Background Knowledge and Previews on Elementary Native Mandarin-speaking English Language Learners' Reading Comprehension

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The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of background knowledge and previewing texts on the reading comprehension of native Mandarin-speaking English Language Learners (ELLs). Participating in the study were 20 3 rd-5th grade ELL students whose first language is Mandarin. Using a within-subjects design, the participants' reading comprehension was measured after reading culturally familiar and culturally unfamiliar texts, both before and after participating in previewing instructional activities. The previewing activities were designed to provide the students with relevant background knowledge to help them comprehend the texts. The results indicated that there was a statistically significant interaction between the type of book (familiar vs. unfamiliar) and the preview intervention (preview vs no preview). The students had significantly higher reading comprehension scores when they were provided a previewing text before reading a culturally unfamiliar text. The results are discussed in terms of the facilitative effects of previews and culturally familiar texts on ELL students' reading comprehension.This effect is particularly prominent when the reading comprehension questions
require background knowledge to be accessed. Similarly, Taft and Leslie (1985)
examined 57 third-grade average readers as they read expository passagesanbsp;...

Title

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The Effect of Background Knowledge and Previews on Elementary Native Mandarin-speaking English Language Learners' Reading Comprehension

Author

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Chia-I. Chen

Publisher

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ProQuest - 2008

ISBN-13

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